Prof's Choice
Caste, the Raj, and Karma Cola.
HAROLD ISAACS, Scratches onOur Minds: American Imagesof China and India (J. Day and Co., 1958) Though published 35 years ago, this excellent study of American views of India remains largely valid today, though the images of China have changed significantly.
C.A. BAYLY, EDITOR, The Raj:India and the British,1600-1941 (The National Portrait Gallery, 1990) This museum volume shows how painting, photography, and architecture were affected by European conceptions of India. If you read only one book on this list, this should be the one.
RONALD B. INDEN, ImaginingIndia (Basil Blackwell, 1990) A look at how Western scholarship continues to portray India as having been shaped not by Indians themselves but by timeless essences, such as Hinduism and the caste system. A tough read, but worth it.
FRANCOIS BERNIER, Travelsin the Mogul Empire (W. Pickering, 1826) Actually written in the seventeenth century, this sweepingly observant book is perhaps the best of the early travel literature.
RUDYARD KIPLING, Kim (Penguin Books, 1989) The most important of the imperial novels set in India. Hardly the jingoistic work one might expect, its colonial attitudes can be uncovered in a subtle reading. Be sure to read the version with Edward Said's introduction.
EDWARD SAID, Orientalism (Pantheon Books, 1979) Despite its focus on images of West Asia in European and American scholarship, Said's work influenced much of the recent work done on conceptions of India.
HERBERT RISLEY, The People ofIndia (W. Thacker and Co., 1915) The broadest of the anthropological studies of India during the colonial times. Especially noteworthy for its racial theory of the caste system.
GITA MEHTA, Karma Cola:Marketing the Mystic East (Simon and Schuster, 1979) A hilarious book about the search by hippies for spiritual truth in India in the sixties and seventies and how Indian gurus capitalized on Western ignorance.
M. M. KAYE, The Far Pavilions (St. Martin's Press, 1978) A classic romantic novel of India, replete with images of princes, European heroes who understand Indian ways, and widow burning. Leave several days for this one.
MICHAEL ADAS, Machines asthe Measure of Men: Science,Technology and Ideologies ofWestern Dominance (Cornell University Press, 1989) A sweeping study, covering the sixteenth century to the present, of how science and technology have often provided Europeans with standards by which to judge Asians and Africans as inferior.
E. M. FORSTER, APassage to India (Meier Publications, 1979) Despite its anti-imperialist message, this great literary work carries many of the preconceptions about India characteristic of the high imperial age. Watch particularly for the character of Godbole, the Brahman who carries otherworldliness to absurd levels.
V. S . NAIPAUL, India: AWounded Civilization (Vintage Books, 1978) A commentary on society and politics by a South Asian from Trinidad who, upon returning to India, finds much that was incompatible with his view of the modern world.
MOVIES: WATCH "Gunga Din," "Octopussy," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "The Man Who Would be King," "Kim," "The Far Pavilions," and "City of Joy" for stereotypes of Indians and for images of European heroes who rescue or take advantage of hapless Indian characters. For an image of India much truer to reality, see "Salaam Bombay" by Mira Nair, and the many movies of Satyajit Ray.
fluenced much of the recent work done on conceptions of India.
